Trick or Treat!!

Hello everyone~!
It's been a while since I've added the previous post. I've been busy lately doing my homework and preparing for the presentations of my classes. So I'm really glad that the weekend finally has come!^^

Halloween is just around the corner and I decided to write a new entry before the day.The reason why I'm doing so is that I'm going to go on a trip to Yamanashi prefecture tomorrow with the Japanese students in AGU, including Hiro and Yuki, and the students who came from foreign countries to study at AGU. So I won't be able to add a new entry on Oct 31. Anyway, I finished preparing for the trip and I am already excited about it because it'll be a nice opportunity to make friends! Also, I am looking forward to watching the scenery near Mt. Fuji. I hope 紅葉(ko-yo(it means the leaves turn red and yellow)) has begun! The program says there are some activities at sightseeing areas, so these experiences will enable me to rediscover Japan!

Alright~, that's all for today!
I'm going to add a new post about the trip as soon as I get back. So tanoshimi ni site ite ne~.(Please look forward to it!) Also, I hope each of you have a very happy Halloween! (I just took the pictures of sweets with Mickey and Minnie for a Halloween decoration on this blog. The sweets are pumpkin flavored Kit Kat!)

Coming-of Age-Day's Photo Shoot!

Hi, everyone~!
I really had a good time talking to some of you on the last week's chat.
I was so happy that Eriko and Yuki finally joined the chat!
Even though we often see each other at our school, it's always fun to talk to my friends!

Anyway...
Today I went to the Kimono store with my parents and my grand mother to do a photo shoot for "Seijin no Hi"(Coming-of-Age day.) "seijin" means adult and "hi" means day in English. Coming-of-Age day is celebrated on the second Monday of January.(So it'll be January 8,2007.) All young people who turn 20 years old in that year are celebrated on Seijin no hi. In Japan, twenty years old is considered as the beginning of adulthood. Also, it's the minimum legal age for voting, drinking, and smoking. So as you can see, 20 years old is the big turning point for Japanese. However, I'm still not sure what it's like to be an adult. I wondered if something would happen on the day I turned 20 years old, but it was just the day which made me think that time passes me by so much faster than I thought! Do you think it's an evidence that shows I'm becoming an adult? Hahaha....

Maybe you think it's early to wear Kimono now, but as Mimaki mentioned on her blog, it's better to take pictures before Coming-of-Age day comes. If you try to take pictures on the day of Seijin no hi, I'm sure you have to wait for long hours. However, my parents told me today that they waited for long hours to take pictures after the ceremony of Coming-of-Age day finished. I was surprised to hear that because just thinking that I have to wear Kimono for long hours makes me exhausted! I'm so glad that times are changing...!! Even though I had to deal with a feeling of tightness when I wore Kimono, wearing Kimono itself was an amazing experience in many ways! Of course I was excited about this, but it was just about wearing Kimono. (Every girl loves wearing beautiful and cute clothes, right?) But after I did wear Kimono, I felt like I was rediscovering the Japanese culture through wearing the traditional clothes. I had to straighten my posture, so it gave me a new perspective for the things that I usually don't try to look at.


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I put the rest of the pictures that my father took on bubbleshare. My father suddenly got excited after I got everything done at the dressing room and asked him how I looked. I guess many of you think the Kimono that I chose is unique because many girls tend to choose red and pink. I decided not to wear those Kimonos because I wanted my Kimono to be different! Also, what I wanted to wear was cool one, not cute. After the struggle to choose what to wear(It was really hard to make a decision because every Kimono was beautiful!), I chose the Kimono which was not red or pink. It was challenging to choose this because few people seem to wear this color. But that also means my Kimono definitely will make me stand out at the ceremony next year!^^ Then, What I like about my Kimono is that the color of each long sleeve is different. I also like the pattern of the belt. I'm so glad to be a girl because it's girl's prerogative to wear Kimono, isn't it? Hahaha~!

I just can't wait to wear it again next year!
See you soon~!

P.S
You can see more detail about seijin shiki if you go to this website.
http://web-jpn.org/kidsweb/calendar/january/seijinshiki.html

How are you doing?!

Hello everyone~!
I have been slacking with my entries a little bit... I'm sorry!
So how's everyone doing? I hope all of you are doing fine.
Today I'm going to talk about what I've been up to.^^

I have been busy lately doing homework and other things to do. So last week I was really glad to have a three-days weekend! The things I did on the weekend was just being lazy... hahaha!(I mean, to rest.^^) Firstly, I got as much sleep as I wanted. Secondly, I watched playoff games of Japanese professional baseball and the race of F1 on TV. Then, I enjoyed reading books after watching TV.

Talking of reading, I've enjoyed reading the novels of Haruki Murakami recently. One of my friends is a huge fun of him and she said, "It's hard to put down the book once you've started it.". I didn't believe what she said before I tried to read one of his novels, but I had to admit that she was right after I finished reading it. His way of describing something is so fascinating that I always keep turning the pages. I just finished reading "Wild Sheep Chase" and "After Dark". I'm now reading "Dance Dance Dance".

I guess my "読書の秋"(the season for reading) has come~!
What's yours? It would be "スポーツの秋"(the season for sports)? "芸術の秋"(the season for art)? Maybe...."食欲の秋"(the season for foods)? Whatever you choose, I wish all of you a friutful one!^^

Anyway... I just can't wait to talk to all of you on our chat today!
See you very soon~! Tanoshimi ni siteru~!(I look forward to it!!)

lovely weekend :Day 2

Hello everyone~!
In Japan, the sweet smell of orange osmanthuses (We call it "金木犀", kin-moku-sei) makes me feel relaxed especially when I get on the way home after the classes. Today I enjoyed the smell of them when I walked to the Fuchinobe station with Yuiko. I met Yuiko and Hiro after the class, and we ate lunch together at the cafeteria of the university. Yuiko bought the latest edition of iPod nano and she looked so happy because she's wanted to buy one since she took a deeper look at Apple's website while she and I enjoyed chatting on MSN! I was very surprised how it became smaller!

Anyway, some of you might wonder if I was going to write more about last weekend because the title of the post I've added on Saturday was "lovely weekend :Day 1". Yes! I still have something to write because my friends and I did different things on Sunday.

As you can see, there was a reunion of the participants of AGU in America 2006 on Oct.1! In the daytime, Laura, Eriko, Miki, Megumi, and I got together in Yokohama. Yokohama is a bit far from my hometown but I really like to go there because it's one of my favorite places in Japan. (This summer I even stayed at the hotel in Yokohama!) We got on the Sea-Bus to go to the red brick warehouses. I think getting on it is always fun because I rarely have an opportunity to do so when I'm in Tokyo. Unfortunately, the rain started falling while we walked around the red brick warehouses. However, we went inside the warehouse quickly and enjoyed lunch.(and desserts!) After that, we looked through the shops there. There were a lot of good shops there! Then we went to the game arcade to do "PURIKURA". I think it's impossible to miss "PURIKURA" if you are interested in the youth culture in Japan. "PURIKURA" is an instant photo machine to make tiny stickers. I just can't remember how many times I did "PURIKURA" with my friends when I was a high school student (I guess I did it almost everyday! Hahaha~.), and I still do "PURIKURA" with my friends. It's one of the must-have items for Japanese girls, and we exchange stickers.



As the sun went down, I started getting e-mails by my cell phone from the rest of us who wanted to join our dinner at the Kaiten Sushi restaurant. Kaoru, Hiro, Kokoro, Shohei, Fumi, Rikko joined us after they finished doing their part-time jobs. Well, Can you imagine what Kaiten Sushi looks like? Sushi is on a conveyor-belt! When you go there, You can enjoy not only eating sushi but also looking at a lot of kinds of sushi on a conveyor-belt! The last time I went to a Kaiten sushi restaurant was actually about two years ago, so I got excited when I saw the conveyor-belt! Hahaha~.^^ I sat at the table with Eriko, Hiro, and Fumi. As you can easily imagine, being with Eriko was sooo much fun that I kept laughing when I enjoyed eating sushi! You can see how my table was if you look at the picture on the right. There was a chaos at table! Hahaha~!! But of course, we managed to eat everything! Also, you can see Rikko, Shohei, Kokoro, Miki, and Laura enjoyed green tea at their table!

I enjoyed hanging out with them so much that I took a lot of pictures!
So I put the rest of the pictures on my blog through bubbleshare, and you can see the larger images of PURIKURA. So enjoy~.^^

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Okay...I think that's all for today!
Also, I'm looking forward to talking to all of you on our next chat.
See you soon~.^^